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Former Sauber Formula 1 technical director Willy Rampf has joined Williams as a part-time consultant to assist with the integration of Francois-Xavier Demaison.
Demaison starts work as Williams technical director next month and knows Rampf well having worked with him at Volkswagen Motorsport.
Rampf was Volkswagen Motorsport technical director when Demaison joined as project manager, but then stepped into a consultancy role when Demaison succeeded him in that position.
Williams CEO Jost Capito, who worked with both as boss of Volkswagen Motorsport, referenced Demaison’s relationship with Rampf several times during a press conference on Friday at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
When asked by The Race if this input was part of a formal role, the Williams team confirmed Rampf’s part-time consultancy position.
Rampf’s position similar to the role team co-founder Patrick Head took following the departure of Paddy Lowe as chief technical officer in 2019.
“It matters a lot and for the good,” said Capito when asked about the significance of Demaison coming from outside of F1.
“He is coming from outside the Formula 1 ecosystem, he has never been in Formula 1 [but] it was always his target to get into Formula 1.
“He is a brilliant engineer and he worked for nearly 10 years with Willy Rampf, who has been technical director in Formula 1, and they work very close together.
“And with that a lot of Formula 1 spirit, technology inside went into the WRC car and especially in the ID.R. So he has this kind of experience.
“He learned a lot from Willy Rampf during that time, so I think it’s the perfect fit for Williams.”
Capito believes that the existing technical structure at Williams works well, meaning Demaison is there to manage it rather than reshape it.
He also backed Demaison to have invested significant time in preparing prior to taking up the role, adding ‘FX’, as he is known, is in close contact with Rampf.
“The technical team of Williams works pretty well so it’s not that he comes and has to fix something that is broken,” said Capito when asked by The Race about Demaison’s targets.
“As I know FX, he is a relentless worker, he is a workaholic and since he sees the chance that he could become technical director in Williams, I’m absolutely sure he spent all his free time he spent to understand the regulations and fully understand Formula 1.
“And I know he’s in close contact with Willy Rampf as well so I think he’s very well prepared when he arrives.”
Rampf spent his early career first in Germany then in his native South Africa, but his first involvement in F1 was in 1993 after he visited the season-opening race at Kyalami.
He worked as a race engineer for Sauber, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen from 1994-1996 then for the car occupied variously by Nicola Larini, Gianni Morbidelli and Norberto Fontana in 1997.
At the end of 1997, he returned to work for BMW but rejoined Sauber in F1 as chief race engineer ahead of the 2000 season. In April of that year, he succeeded Leo Ress as Sauber’s technical director.
He remained in the role when BMW bought a majority stake in the team ahead of 2006, during which Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld claimed the team’s only victory with a one-two in the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix.
Rampf initially stayed on during its reversion to being an independent team as Sauber in 2010 but he left his role as technical director in April 2010, with James Key taking up the position.
The following year Rampf joined Volkswagen Motorsport as technical director, a role in which he worked closely with Demaison on the all-conquering World Rally Championship programme before moving into a technical consultant role.
In that capacity, he also worked with Demaison on the Volkswagen I.D.R electric car project.
